The Adventure

Question 1

“O mortal who complainst

Answer 1

of death and fate,

Question 2

Accuse none of the harms

Answer 2

thyself hast called;

Question 3

This troubled world

Answer 3

thou hast chosen for thy home,

Question 4

Thou art thyself

Answer 4

the author of thy pain.

Question 5

Once in the immortal

Answer 5

boundlessness of Self,

Question 6

In a vast of Truth

Answer 6

and Consciousness and Light

Question 7

The soul looked out

Answer 7

from its felicity.

Question 8

It felt the Spirit’s

Answer 8

interminable bliss,

Question 9

It knew itself deathless,

Answer 9

timeless, spaceless, one,

Question 10

It saw the Eternal,

Answer 10

lived in the Infinite.

Question 11

Then, curious of a shadow

Answer 11

thrown by Truth,

Question 12

It strained towards

Answer 12

some otherness of self,

Question 13

It was drawn to an unknown Face

Answer 13

peering through night.

Question 14

It sensed

Answer 14

a negative infinity,

Question 15

A void supernal

Answer 15

whose immense excess

Question 16

Imitating God

Answer 16

and everlasting Time

Question 17

Offered a ground

Answer 17

for Nature’s adverse birth

Question 18

And Matter’s rigid

Answer 18

hard unconsciousness

Question 19

Harbouring the brilliance

Answer 19

of a transient soul

Question 20

That lights up birth

Answer 20

and death and ignorant life.

Question 21

A Mind arose

Answer 21

that stared at Nothingness

Question 22

Till figures formed

Answer 22

of what could never be;

Question 23

It housed the contrary

Answer 23

of all that is.

Question 24

A Nought appeared

Answer 24

as Being’s huge sealed cause,

Question 25

Its dumb support

Answer 25

in a blank infinite,

Question 26

In whose abysm

Answer 26

spirit must disappear:

Question 27

A darkened Nature

Answer 27

lived and held the seed

Question 28

Of Spirit hidden

Answer 28

and feigning not to be.

Question 29

Eternal Consciousness

Answer 29

became a freak

Question 30

Of an unsouled

Answer 30

almighty Inconscient

Question 31

And, breathed no more

Answer 31

as spirit's native air,

Question 32

Bliss was an incident

Answer 32

of mortal hour,

Question 33

A stranger

Answer 33

in the insentient universe.

Question 34

As one drawn

Answer 34

by the grandeur of the Void

Question 35

The soul attracted

Answer 35

leaned to the Abyss:

Question 36

It longed for the adventure

Answer 36

of Ignorance

Question 37

And the marvel and surprise

Answer 37

of the Unknown

Question 38

And the endless possibility

Answer 38

that lurked

Question 39

In the womb of Chaos

Answer 39

and in Nothing's gulf

Question 40

Or looked from the unfathomed

Answer 40

eyes of Chance.

Question 41

It tired of its unchanging

Answer 41

happiness,

Question 42

It turned away

Answer 42

from immortality:

Question 43

It was drawn to hazard's call

Answer 43

and danger's charm,

Question 44

It yearned to the pathos

Answer 44

of grief, the drama of pain,

Question 45

Perdition's peril,

Answer 45

the wounded bare escape,

Question 46

The music of ruin

Answer 46

and its glamour and crash,

Question 47

The savour of pity

Answer 47

and the gamble of love

Question 48

And passion and the

Answer 48

ambiguous face of Fate.

Question 49

A world of hard endeavour

Answer 49

and difficult toil,

Question 50

And battle on extinction's

Answer 50

perilous verge,

Question 51

A clash of forces,

Answer 51

a vast incertitude,

Question 52

The joy of creation

Answer 52

out of Nothingness,

Question 53

Strange meetings

Answer 53

on the roads of Ignorance

Question 54

And the companionship

Answer 54

of half-known souls

Question 55

Or the solitary greatness

Answer 55

and lonely force

Question 56

Of a separate being

Answer 56

conquering its world,

Question 57

Called it from

Answer 57

its too safe eternity.

Question 58

A huge descent began,

Answer 58

a giant fall:

Question 59

For what the spirit sees,

Answer 59

creates a truth

Question 60

And what the soul imagines

Answer 60

is made a world.

Question 61

A Thought that leaped

Answer 61

from the Timeless can become,

Question 62

Indicator of

Answer 62

cosmic consequence

Question 63

And the itinerary

Answer 63

of the gods,

Question 64

A cyclic movement

Answer 64

in eternal Time.

Question 65

Thus came,

Answer 65

born from a blind tremendous choice,

Question 66

This great perplexed

Answer 66

and discontented world,

Question 67

This haunt of Ignorance,

Answer 67

this home of Pain:

Question 68

There are pitched desire's tents,

Answer 68

grief's headquarters.

Question 69

A vast disguise

Answer 69

conceals the Eternal's bliss."